Tales of the Beifong Metalbending Academy
by canadiannotamerican
Summary: A series of short stories following Toph's trials as a metalbending teacher.
1. Shoes

Now that I have more than one chapter up, I guess a quick author's note is in order. This story is just a small collection of short stories that revolve around Toph and her academy. I will add stories to it as I come up with ideas, so it likely won't be a consistent thing. I'm full of ideas already though, so don't worry about me losing steam just yet. I hope you all enjoy what I have to offer.

Disclaimer: I don't own this world, or these characters. I wish I was clever enough to have come up with Toph, but she's not mine.

* * *

"Sifu Toph!"

Toph Beifong shot up in bed, her black hair in wild disarray. "What?!" she cried, eyes wide.

"I had a bad dream."

After one month of running her new academy, it was starting to feel to Toph like she was running more of a daycare than anything else. She crawled out of bed, slowly blinking her tired, blind eyes.

"Penga, it was just a dream." She shuffled over to the frightened girl and tried pushing her out of the room, but Penga wouldn't budge. "Go to bed. Please."

"But Sifu!" Penga whined.

Toph sighed. Penga was only nine, and scared. She couldn't turn her back on the girl no matter how inviting her bed seemed. "Why don't we go to the kitchen for some tea."

All the way to the kitchen, Penga stuck close to her teacher. If Toph weren't so vocally opposed to hugging, she was sure the girl would have been latched onto her arm. Sometimes Toph felt bad for taking such a young girl away from home, but Penga's parents had been happy enough to ship their daughter away, so they must not have been all that great. Besides, Toph was only four years older than her. Arguably she was barely a teenager herself, and she was fine on her own.

When they got to the kitchen, Toph put some water to boil on the stove. Penga climbed onto a chair at their small kitchen table. Her bare feet didn't even touch the floor.

"You know, a wise man once told me that tea solves all kinds of problems," Toph said as she sat next to the girl.

"Really?"

Toph nodded. "Yup. And I'm pretty sure he used those exact words. Now why don't you tell me what your dream was about."

Penga took a deep breath as she stared down at the table. "Well, I was sitting in my room at home bossing servants around, because I always liked doing that. You know, it's really unfair that I don't have servants here . Why won't you let us have servants?"

Toph attempted to roll her eyes. It was something she had been practicing.

"What was that?"

"I was rolling my eyes."

"You're not very good at it." Toph sighed. "Anyway. I was bossing my servants around and I told one of them to move my gold trunk out of the cloud attic. I had a cloud attic in the dream, and the servants could get to it by flying. And the gold trunk was actually silver, but in my dream I knew it was gold even if it was silver."

"Could you just get to the point?"

"I had shoes in the trunk. And they ate all my servants!"

"And?" Toph asked.

"And it was scary!"

Toph felt a drop of liquid hit the table, and it was then she realised Penga was crying. The dream, of course, was absolutely ridiculous. But it had seriously upset Penga, and that was all that was really important. Toph awkwardly put a hand on Penga's shoulder.

"You know, shoes don't really eat people," she said.

Penga sniffed. "I know," she said. "But, you know when you wake up from a dream, and you're really afraid of something in the dream? I'm afraid of shoes!" She grabbed Toph's shoulder and tried to look her in the eye, but of course it wasn't working the way she wanted. "I don't want to be afraid of shoes!"

"Penga, are you... are you wearing shoes right now?"

"No!" Penga sobbed, and Toph found that she actually wasn't wearing shoes. This was very unusual for Penga, even at night. Toph knew for a fact that the girl had slippers she wore with her night clothes. It was then that the kettle let off a shrill whistle.

It took Toph a moment to disentangle herself from the sobbing child, but eventually she was able to lug her tired body over to the stove and yank the pot off the element. In hindsight, it was a miracle Toph didn't burn herself, but the high pitched shriek of the steam was grating on her ears. She transferred the tea to a pot and returned to Penga at the table.

Penga was still crying, and she rubbed furiously at her eyes as though she were trying to stem the tears.

When Toph sat down again, she didn't touch the girl. "You know you won't be afraid of shoes forever, right?" Penga didn't say anything. "Sometimes we're scared of something for a little while, but it gets better. Besides. You love shoes."

Penga nodded. "My mom and dad used to buy me all the shoes I wanted."

"Ah." Toph wasn't sure how to respond to that. Talking about parents wasn't exactly a strong point for her.

Penga looked at her teacher. "What about your parents? Did they buy you all the shoes you wanted?"

"Well." Toph faltered. "They bought me a lot of shoes... but I wouldn't say I wanted them."

Penga gasped. "You didn't want _shoes_!?"

Toph stretched her own bare feet. "Well, I'm sure you've noticed that I don't exactly wear shoes. Ever."

Penga nodded. "I thought you lost them. I was going to offer some of mine, but your feet are too big."

Toph smiled. Penga was really sweet, even if she was a bit of a spoiled brat. Toph could forgive that, having been a spoiled brat herself. "I see with my feet, through earthbending. That's why I make you guys go barefoot and wear blindfolds in practice. Shoes make that... difficult."

Penga opened her mouth in an O. The two of them sat in silence for a moment while Penga stared at the table, pondering on what Toph had just told her. Finally, Toph got up and transferred some tea from the pot into two cups. When she sat back down, Penga looked at her.

"What did you do with them?" she asked.

"Huh?"

"The shoes. You said you didn't want them. Did your parents make you wear them?"

Toph's breath hitched. Her parents _had_ made her wear the shoes they had bought. She had hated every moment of it, and had slipped them off whenever she could. In hindsight, being forced to wear shoes had been what had resulted in Toph running into a lot of things growing up. That was probably one of the reasons her parents were so protective. But of course, wearing shoes was _the way things were done_.

Penga was still awaiting a response.

"I... I wore shoes as a child, yes."

Penga gasped again. "They made you wear _shoes_ when you _didn't want to wear them?!_" At least she had stopped crying.

"Well... yes. But, they bought me other things too. Things that I actually wanted. Like the silk bed sheets, or... I had an entire set of earthen badgermole toys growing up. They all wore different outfits. There was something like twenty of them." Toph sank into her chair. "The truth is, there was hardly ever anything I asked my parents for that I didn't get. They wanted so bad to make me happy."

"Mine too."

They sat in silence for a while, sipping their tea. Eventually Toph let out a massive yawn. Her tea had all but run dry.

"Well, if you're not completely terrified anymore, I think it's long since time for bed." She got up and shuffled towards the door, leaving her empty teacup on the table. Toph didn't know how long Penga stayed in the kitchen after that, but the girl didn't complain about her teacher leaving. She sat in silence, staring into her empty teacup. Toph wondered what she was thinking about.

Maybe the two were kindred spirits after all.


	2. Badgermoles

It was very frustrating to Toph that not a single one of her three students had picked up metalbending. Of course, she knew from the beginning that the academy was experimental. It was possible Toph was the only person who could ever learn metalbending. Heck even Twinkle Toes couldn't pull it off, and he was supposed to be some kind of all powerful bender of benders.

And maybe Toph could accept all of that, that this whole ordeal was futile, that she was entirely alone in the world of metalbending... had her students been able to pick up even the most basic earthbending technique that would make everything so much easier: Seismic Sense.

But they couldn't even do that.

So now she stood on the ground in front of the academy building with her three students bare foot and blindfolded in front of her. Unfortunately they weren't taking to being barefoot as well as Aang had, and Toph could only clench her fists at the chaos in front of her.

Penga was complaining loudly about her lack of shoes. Toph knew the girl was obsessed, but not being able to get through one practice barefoot was a little excessive. Ho Tun was freaking out about every rock that stuck into his foot and couldn't keep still, which of course resulted in him stepping on even more rocks. The Dark One, at least, was taking to being barefoot better than the other two. Unfortunately his concentration was focussed more on frowning and trying to glare at his surroundings despite his blindfold. Apparently he hated nature.

When Penga let out another enraged shriek, Toph had had enough.

"Spirits!" she screamed. "Would you all just BE QUIET!"

"But I wasn't even-"

Toph pointed sharply at The Dark One. "Don't you talk back to me."

There was silence.

"Penga, you are not putting on another pair of shoes. The Dark One, focus on the earth, not how much you hate everything. And seriously, what kind of earthbender is afraid of ROCKS!"

Ho Tun shrunk away from his instructor and whimpered. The other two stood completely still, possibly too shocked to move. Toph took a deep breath.

"I'm really not asking much of you. Just stand still, and concentrate on the earth under your feet. It's really not that hard." They stood.

After a minute or so Penga spoke up. "How long do we have to stand here?"

"Until you can feel the earth," Toph responded. "And no moving. I'm watching you."

There was a collective groan from the group, but it was followed by blessed silence. Toph could tell they were trying to concentrate, but it didn't seem to be enough. After some time she sat down on a rock and blew a puff of hair off of her face. This was going to take a while.

Even though the group was now quiet, Toph wasn't sure she could actually call what they were doing concentrating. She could feel Ho Tun's heartbeat pick up at the slightest sound, and Penga was clenching and unclenching her toes. The Dark One seemed to be drifting off into thoughts of what she could only assume were poetic complaints about his current predicament.

After half an hour, Toph was considering giving up. That was, until she felt something moving under the ground. Suddenly, she smiled. This was going to be interesting.

Toph stood. "Okay. We're going to try something a little different. I want you all to earthbend."

Ho Tun jumped at the sound of her voice and Penga stomped her foot. "But how are we supposed to earthbend if we can't see the rocks?"

"I manage," Toph said with as much control in her voice as she could muster. "Now there's earth ALL AROUND YOU! BEND IT!" she shouted. Her bracelet really had picked the three most useless earthbenders in Yu Dao. Next time, she would have to make sure not to pick crazy people as her students.

Her students quickly responded to the order and each one shot a pillar of earth into the air. It wasn't spectacular earthbending, but it was enough to draw attention. Toph grinned.

The earth shook.

"Hey, what are you doing?" asked Ho Tun, his voice shaking.

"Me? I'm not doing anything?" Toph responded.

The shaking got stronger and The Dark One threw his arms in the air. "We've angered Sifu Toph! Our lives are forfeit!"

Toph only laughed. "I told you lily livers, I'm not doing anything! Maybe if you could feel the earth, you'd know what's happening!"

"I don't want to die!" shouted Ho Tun. He dropped to the ground as his trembling legs gave out beneath him. Suddenly, something exploded behind the three students and the shaking stopped. There was silence.

"What's going on?" Penga finally demanded, then something nudged her in the back. She shrieked and stumbled forward, tripping on a rock. "What was that?!"

"Feel the ground and find out," Toph said. Even though none of her students could see it, she was grinning ear to ear. Turns out teaching could be fun after all.

"It's a badgermole," The Dark One responded.

"Good. You felt it."

"Untrue. I'm simply not an imbecile like my companions."

"Hey!" Penga yelled.

Toph frowned and crossed her arms as Ho Tun carefully picked himself up off the ground. "I learned how to feel the earth from badgermoles. Now's your chance. Learn." The badgermole made its way over to Toph and sniffed her curiously. Toph put her hand on the creature's snout.

"Aren't badgermoles wild animals? They're dangerous!" Ho Tun was backing away from where he'd heard the large creature move. He bumped into a tree and whimpered.

"I've never had any trouble with them," Toph said. "I guess we get each other because we're both blind. You might not want to take that off." Ho Tun was reaching to pull the blindfold off, but thought better of it. Toph really was having far too much fun with all of this.

"Now what?" Penga asked. But Toph didn't need to answer because the badgermole was already examining each of her students. It poked The Dark One in the back with its nose before turning and nudging Ho Tun in the belly. The creature sniffed around Penga's feet and cocked its head slightly. Once the examination was over, the badgermole lifted one claw and swiped the ground around their feet, clearing it of debris. "Woh! I felt something!"

Ho Tun and The Dark One voiced their agreement. They had felt something when the badgermole had cleared the ground for them. Toph chose to remain silent. It had been a while since she had learned earthbending from the badgermoles. Maybe now she could learn earthbending teaching from them.

The creature moved so that it was as close to being in the centre of all three of them as possible before it slapped the ground with one massive claw. The earth shook and the three students jumped slightly. Once the surprise had worn off, they took their stance again, and the badgermole shook the earth another time.

"I think it wants us to concentrate on the ground!" Said Ho Tun.

Toph narrowed her eyes. That's what _she_ wanted them to do. She had _told _them that's what she had wanted them to do. But her students were paying attention to the ground now. She could feel the concentration in their stance. Even Ho Tun barely flinched as the badgermole set the earth to shaking one more time. This was working.

"I... felt something," said The Dark One. "I think I feel the earth."

The badgermole had done its job and it was time for Toph to step in. "Good," she said. "Now earthbend at me."

The badgermole stilled as The Dark One felt the ground beneath him. He stomped, and shot a rock in Toph's direction. The girl deflected it easily, but she had a wide grin on her face. His shot had been dead on. The Dark One knew exactly where she had been standing.

"I wanna try!" Penga cried, jumping up and down.

One by one her students shot rocks at her, until they had each done it enough times that Toph knew it wasn't a fluke. They could feel the earth. They could feel her.

It wasn't like Toph hadn't tried physically shaking the ground to get her students to feel the earth. She had, but they were all so dysfunctional it had driven Toph crazy. Turns out all it took was the threat of being eaten by a giant earthbending animal to get her students' seismic sense working.

Once they had quieted down, Toph turned to the badgermole that had been standing there, quietly observing them. "Thank you," she said, bowing. Her students did the same. The creature remained still for a moment, before turning from them and burrowing back into the ground.

"I think we're done for the day," Toph said.

"That was so cool!" squeeled Penga, pulling off her blindfold. "That's how you feel the world? Every day?"

The boys took off their blindfolds as well. "It's not that big of a deal," Toph said. "An earthbender should be able to feel the earth." Ho Tun was fiddling with his blindfold and staring at the ground. "What?"

"It's just... nobody ever really... taught me to earthbend."

"Me neither," said The Dark One.

Toph frowned. "Penga?"

"I wasn't taught either."

"None of you have had proper earthbending training?" Toph asked.

"Sifu Toph, we didn't come from an academy. You picked us up because you met us on the street. I don't know how you knew I could even earthbend since I was always too scared to learn properly. I never had a teacher."

"I never asked my parents for earthbending lessons," said Penga. "I only ever asked for shoes."

"I figured it would be a pursuit pointless as an orphaned child crying for its mother. I would never use earthbending."

She'd had her students with her for just over a month now, and she didn't even know none of them had had any training? Toph wanted to bang her head against a tree. She must be the worst teacher in the earth kingdom! She took a deep breath. She had taught eathbending to the avatar. She could teach it to these lily livers.

"Well, you're learning now. And believe me, what you just learned today will be essential to metalbending, so we'll be working on it again tomorrow. Understood?" Her students vocalized their understanding. "Good. Now head back to the building and we'll get something to eat. Penga, you can put your shoes on now."

Maybe her students were greener than a... well Toph couldn't exactly remember what all she had been told was green, but she was sure her students were greener than any of it. It didn't matter. They had made progress today and she knew they would make more in the future.

As Penga scurried to get her shoes back on her feet, and the other two headed back towards the academy building, Toph smiled. She needed to have badgermoles visit more often.


	3. Personal Space

Metalbending was possible! Toph knew that already, but the success her students had in driving away the firebending students was proof that it was possible for people other than Toph Beifong. Toph was happy, but now every earthbender who found out wanted into her academy and things were starting to get crowded.

Toph had to give up her bedroom.

Or more accurately, Toph had to share. It wasn't that she disliked the idea of sharing, but she certainly liked her privacy. Now she was sharing her bedroom with her three most senior students, and the new recruits who needed to be boarded were being crammed into the second, larger room. Toph had shoved her bed into the far corner of the room and set up curtains to at least give her the semblance of privacy. At least her students wouldn't _see_ her sleeping, not that that meant a whole lot to Toph. Penga had set up shop next to her, though she was blessedly on the other side of Toph's privacy curtain. There was at least a decent amount of space in between their side of the room and the side where the boys were sleeping, but it didn't ease Toph's discomfort any.

Her students mostly dismissed their grumpy sifu as 'Toph being Toph', but Penga, Ho Tun, and The Dark One knew something was off. It wasn't until a week after they moved into her room that they found out what it was, when Toph woke up from her sleep with a strangled gasp.

She was sweating profusely and her sheets were tangled around her feet. She had a death grip on the sheet beneath her. She remembered feeling heat, falling, fear. Even if she couldn't remember exactly what had happened in her dream, she knew what it had been about. Toph often had nightmares about the war.

She was awake now, but the fear didn't go away that easily. It had been less than two years since Aang had brought down Firelord Ozai, and two years was not enough time to recover from everything they had gone through. She wanted to cry, but decided instead to try and calm her breathing.

"Sifu Toph?"

"Huh?" The sound of Penga's voice brought Toph back to reality and reminded her that she was not alone in her bedroom. The voice had come from close to her bed, meaning Penga had gotten up to check on her.

Crap.

Toph scooted back towards the wall, praying that the other two had stayed in bed and were none the wiser to her restless sleep, but as her hand made contact with the wall she could feel all three of them.

"Are... are you okay?" asked Ho Tun.

Toph grunted in irritation. "I'm fine," she said quietly, though all she really wanted to do was curl up into the secure embrace of her blanket. Her heart was still pounding, but with her students standing over her she did her best to appear calm and relaxed. "Go back to sleep."

"But-"

"It was a dream," she growled. "I'm fine. Sleep." This came out far more menacing than she had intended, but it did the trick. Nobody messed with an irritated Toph. Her three students retreated warily to the other side of Toph's curtain and the metalbending instructor gave a sigh of relief. She didn't end up getting much more sleep that night.

She got up around midday as usual, just as Ho Tun was finishing up teaching the beginner's class. She had two lessons to slog through after her breakfast: the intermediate class, and the advanced class, which consisted only of her three original students. It was the last class she was dreading most.

She really liked the intermediate students. Unlike her advanced class, these students had come to _her_, and they were eager to learn. They soaked up everything Toph had to say like sponges and seemed to admire just about everything about her. And they were competent to boot! There was something about being a war hero that brought Toph respect, and she liked it.

But her advanced class knew her better. They had known her before the fame had started to kick in and while she talked them through their lesson, they knew something was up. Luckily, they didn't say anything.

When the lesson was over, Toph sighed in relief, her three students walking away from the makeshift arena she had set up slightly to the east of the academy building. She sat down on a rock and let herself relax. Maybe they would let it drop and the four of them could just pretend Toph's nightmare had never happened.

"Sifu Toph?"

_Crap._ "What?" It was Ho Tun, who had turned back to his teacher before he could head back to the building.

"I just..." Obviously the guy was worried about talking to his teacher, something Toph had come to expect from her most lily livered student. "I wanted to make sure you were okay."

Not one to accept her bravery being questioned, Toph huffed. "I'm fine, why do you ask?"

"Last night..."

"I had a dream. So what? People have dreams all the time." Toph felt heat rush to her cheeks, and knew that it was visible to other people. She wished it would stop.

"It's just, if you want to talk about it... I know what it's like to be scared."

"Whatever."

Luckily Ho Tun left after that, and Toph was left to wallow in her own misery.

Nobody brought it up again after that, and Toph eventually lightened up and got back to her usual bossy self. She was also blissfully nightmare free. Or she was, until she came down with a fever one day and ended up bedridden.

She was exhausted, her stomach felt off, and she was so damn _cold._ Toph curled up under her blankets, glad that she had her advanced students to take over for her in teaching the other two classes. They could catch up on their own lessons later. At the moment, Toph needed her rest.

She drifted off into what she had hoped would be a calm and relaxing dream, but Toph should have known better than to expect a good dream when she had a fever.

She felt her fingers gripping Sokka's hand. Aang was yelling somewhere in the distance and there was a hot, suffocating wind trying to pull her from Sokka's grip. Toph cried out and tried to grab the hand with her other hand, but she was sweating and her grip was slipping, and no matter how hard she swung her other arm she never made contact.

Now it was only her fingers keeping her from plummeting to her fiery death and Toph wasn't proud to admit that she was crying. She tried digging her nails into Sokka's hand in a last ditch attempt to save herself, but it was no use. She slipped.

And she woke up, crying for real this time. She was curled up on her side in the bed, the blanket was tangled around her arms and her feet were left exposed to the air. She felt sick to her stomach and had to gulp down a few lungfuls of air to calm herself.

She rubbed the back of her hand across her eyes, trying to dry away the tears but only succeeding in smearing them across her cheeks. She hated being sick, but at least it was the middle of the day and nobody was around to see her.

"Sifu Toph, are you okay?"

_Oh, come on!_

"Ho Tun? What are you doing in here? What time is it?" Toph pushed herself into a seated position and tried scooting back towards the wall, but she was a little dizzy from the fever and felt her hand slip off the side of the bed. She managed to not fall over completely by catching herself on her elbow, but the slip had been embarrassing none-the-less.

"Oh no, here, let me help you!"

"I'm fine, I don't need help!" Toph pulled away sharply from the hand that had tried to grab her right arm and she stumbled back, her head slamming into the wall behind her. She heard Ho Tun gasp as she groaned, rubbing the back of her head. "What do you need?"

"I-I just came to check and make sure you didn't need anything. I thought I heard you crying..."

"Ya, well, I don't need anything."

"I... brought you some water," Ho Tun said. His voice was so quiet sometimes.

Toph_ was_ thirsty. She'd been in bed for most of the day and hadn't had anything to eat or drink since that morning when she'd stumbled into the kitchen apparently looking like death. "Okay, hand it over." She put out her hand and waited patiently for Ho Tun to realise that she couldn't see him and he needed to put the cup in it for her. Eventually she felt the cool stoneware in the palm of her hand and she took it from him, gulping the water down in seconds.

"Do you want me to get you some more?"

"Ya, sounds good." She held the cup out for him to take and as the older student rushed out of the room to do his sifu's bidding, she leaned back against the wall and allowed her contact with the stone to bring the room into a semblance of focus.

It was much messier than it had been when it was only Toph's room. It's not that Toph was a tidy person, no, a good portion of the mess was thanks to her clothes being strewn across the floor, but she just didn't own that much stuff. Now that she shared with three other people, there were an awful lot of books and shoes lying around the place, and these were things Toph normally didn't bother with. Penga was used to having servants and had trouble cleaning up after herself most of the time and the Dark One was always going through his poetry books, so they rarely ended up back on the shelf. At least Ho Tun was relatively tidy with _his_ belongings.

Ho Tun returned with another cup of water and with her back pressed against the wall, Toph was able to take it from him without help. Gulping down the last one had made her feel slightly queasy, and not wanting to add throwing up to her list of annoying symptoms, Toph decided to take the second one more slowly.

Ho Tun continued to stand by her bed as she sipped at the water, which Toph found to be mildly annoying. She wasn't a fan of people being privy to her weaker moments.

"Was... was it the war?" he finally asked. His voice was so quiet Toph wasn't sure he had even spoken at first. It took her a moment to process the question before she glared. He was asking about her dream.

"It was nothing," she said. "I sometimes have bad dreams, that's all."

"So do I, but I don't usually wake up crying."

Toph grunted as she finished off her second cup of water. She handed it to Ho Tun who took it and stood there uncertainly. "Did you want some more?" he finally asked.

"No, I think that's enough." Ho Tun turned to leave, but Toph suddenly found herself not wanting to be alone. She blamed the fever for what she said next. "But... maybe I could use some tea. That's supposed to be good when you're sick, right?"

When he came back next he had a pot of tea and two cups. Toph was glad he had decided to bring one for himself and wasn't planning on leaving her alone.

She must be going soft.

He poured two cups of tea, handing one to Toph who took it and sipped it gingerly. He continued to stand in front of her bed like an awkward fool.

"You can sit down you know. I won't bite too much," Toph said. She grinned the Tophiest grin she could manage with the fever making her head spin. Ho Tun shuffled over to her bed obediently and sat down on the edge. It was adorable how afraid of her he was.

They drank their tea in silence for a while.

"Do you get sick a lot?" Ho Tun finally asked.

"That's a stupid question. This is the first time I've been sick since I started teaching you."

"R-right..." He was quiet again, but it didn't last too long this time. "When I'm sick I get bad dreams too. Mostly of the things I'm most afraid. I guess that's a lot of things for me."

"Hm," Toph said as she sipped her tea. "That must suck."

"Ya, especially when you're afraid of as many things as I am. Sometimes I wonder if I'm cut out for this whole metalbending thing. I mean, _you're_ always so brave. Why can't I be?"

Toph snorted. "You're one of the first four metalbenders in history, and you're trying to tell me you're not cut out for it?" She felt him shrug and she rolled her eyes.

They fell into silence again and Toph finished off her tea, holding the empty cup in her hands. She thought maybe she could go back to sleep now, but she didn't want to have another nightmare. She knew it would happen if she did.

"So... what was it about?"

What was wha- oh. Her dream.

"The war."

She could tell he was looking her over carefully now and felt herself blush. Then again, she was feverish, so maybe that was a good enough excuse for her stupid face's behaviour.

"You went through a lot then," Ho Tun finally said. "And... I mean, you- you weren't even a teenager yet. I guess... the rest of us, w-we understand. That it's hard."

Toph felt her heart constrict and tears were starting to well up in her eyes again.

"Don't worry about us being here. If you... need anything? W-we're here to help. It's the least we can do, since you've helped us."

"Thanks," Toph said weakly.

She let Ho Tun take the cup from her hands and he gathered up everything, leaving her there with an extra cup of water in case she got thirsty later. She fell asleep again, and somehow managed not to have another nightmare that night.

It was a week later when Toph dreamed of being trapped in a metal box. She was hyperventilating and pushing against the walls, but no matter how hard she tried, earthbenders just couldn't bend metal. She was terrified.

And she bolted upright with a gasp, trying to figure out what had woken her up. She smelled something floral... tea?

Ho Tun handed her the steaming cup and she pulled her knees up to her chest, letting the warm liquid calm her nerves. The others were there too, and after making sure she was settled, they went back to bed. Ho Tun stayed with her until the tea was done, and Toph was glad.


	4. Books

_ Crap._

Toph stumbled across the floor of her shared bedroom until she was able to grab onto the wall. She hopped gingerly on one foot as she nursed her stubbed toe.

_The Dark One has way too many books._

It was too early in the morning for this garbage, and Toph hated having to navigate her way around everyone's belongings just to get to the bedroom door. At least she was awake now. She flexed her foot before stepping out into the main room.

Ho Tun was in the middle of teaching the beginner's class. The room was full of people of varying ages, something that Toph found amusing. A beginner's class that ranged ages eight to eighty, because so many earthbenders were interested in learning this newest form of bending. Ho Tun had them spinning coins in the palms of their hands.

Toph shuffled up next to him so she could observe their progress. She rubbed absentmindedly at her stuffy nose and let out an undignified snort. Ho Tun jumped in surprise.

"Sifu Toph! I- I didn't see you there," he stammered.

"Then you should start paying more attention," she said. "How're they doing?"

"Fine! Most of them are learning well." He turned back to the class, most of whom were heavily focussed on the task at hand. Her newest student appeared the be having difficulty though, and was glancing frantically at the spinning coins her classmates held as she grasped her own metallic disk.

"Good. Make sure to let me know when any of them are ready for the intermediate class." Toph looped around the side of the room towards the kitchen, leaving Ho Tun to his teaching.

Inside the kitchen were a couple of the students from the intermediate class. They appeared to be working as a team to put together some kind of crude breakfast. It was only the younger students that Toph was willing to board at the moment. She was trying to avoid the controversy of having a fifty year old man sharing a room with a ten year old girl, but that meant very few of her students were all that experienced with making decent food. Toph didn't like the idea of having servants around, what with them drudging up memories of her suffocating upbringing, but she had to admit they could all probably use a cook. Toph hacked off a chunk of bread from a loaf sitting on the table and grabbed blindly at the bowl of fruit. She ended up with a mango and sat down next to The Dark One, who was reading a book.

Toph received a disinterested glance from her student as she began to slice off the mango's skin using a knife she'd formed from her meteor bracelet. She ate silently, but her nose was stuffy and clogged and it was really starting to bother her. Without a second thought, she stuck in a finger and started digging.

"Ugh," The Dark One grumbled. "Do you have to do that at the kitchen table? It's atrocious."

"I have to do it somewhere," Toph responded. She pulled out a booger and flicked it onto the floor. Finally, she could smell the sweet mangoey scent of her breakfast!

"Perhaps the place of our ingested sustenance is not the place for such unsavoury tasks," he said.

Toph sniffed. "Don't pick where we eat. Got it." She leaned back in her chair and chewed on the bread. The other students were behind her, peering nervously into a sticky bowl. The Dark One turned a page, his gaze directed downward.

"What'cha readin?" she asked, her mouth full of saliva laden bread.

The Dark One's nose crinkled in disgust and Toph smirked. That's what he got for trying to tell her how to act in her own academy.

But he didn't let his disgust deter him from answering the sifu's question. "Su's Enlightened Views on Poetic Scenery," he responded. Toph raised an eyebrow.

"That doesn't sound nearly as dark as what I thought you'd be reading," she said, after swallowing her food. "What's it about?"

The Dark One stopped reading for a moment, lifting his head to stare at the prodigious teenager sitting next to him. Toph got the impression he was judging her. "Why do you find my choice in literature so intriguing?" he asked. Toph shrugged.

"Just making conversation I guess." She stretched and stood up. "Well, I've got to go pick my nose some more and since you seem to hate me doing it in here so much, I'll just finish my breakfast outside. See you in class." Toph sauntered out of the kitchen with her last few mouthfuls of bread in one hand, and her other hand occupied with the inside of her nose.

* * *

It was later in the evening that the topic of The Dark One's books came up again. Class had finished hours previously, dinner had been consumed, and now the academy's occupants were relaxing their sore muscles after a day of being thrown around by the greatest earthbender in the world. Toph was lounging on her bed, picking her toes, the back of one hand pressed against the wall behind her so she could keep an eye, so to speak, on the room around her. The only other occupant of the room was reading quietly in his own little corner. Toph didn't currently have her side of the room curtained off, preferring to leave herself in a position to be available should anyone desperately need her. Like if somebody lit the kitchen on fire again.

She was becoming more and more secluded from her students as the academy's population grew. As word of her exploits spread, Toph's fame was growing. It also meant that Toph often found herself accosted by students who wanted to hear stories about the war, and Toph _hated_ telling stories.

So she lay in bed that evening, not feeling like being confronted by the others. But she was growing bored. She heard the rustle of a page being turned and her nostrils flared in irritation.

"You know, I stubbed a toe on one of your books earlier," she said.

The Dark One glanced up from his book. "So?" he said. Toph's seismic sense couldn't quite make out his expression from the other side of the room, but she could tell from his voice that her irritation was contagious.

"So stop leaving them on the floor. You have a bookshelf for a reason."

The Dark One didn't respond. Instead he turned another page of his book. Apparently he'd gone back to reading.

"What're you reading, anyway?" Toph asked. "More 'Poetic Scenery?'"

The Dark One sighed and let the book rest limply on his lap. "No," he responded. "I'm reading fairy tales."

Toph choked on a laugh. "Fairy tales? _You're_ reading fairy tales?"

"Am I not permitted to indulge? Will I be forever trapped in the torment of engaging in morose poetry?"

"Fine, fine, enjoy your fairy tales," Toph said. She chuckled as she rolled a gritty piece of dirt between her fingers but quieted down as The Dark One lifted the book once more. There was silence for a little, until he turned another page. Toph scrunched up her nose. "What fairy tales are you reading?" she asked.

She heard him grunt as he dropped the book onto his lap again. He looked up at her sharply and Toph just _knew_ he was glaring daggers at her. She chose not to react.

"If you absolutely _must _know, I'm currently in the process of reading through 'The Moles and the Badgers' and I would appreciate it if you would _let me finish_," The Dark One snapped.

Toph froze. She remembered that story. Very well, in fact. One of her nanny's used to read it to her when she was little. It had always been her favourite.

Toph's hand went limp as she dropped the dirt onto her mattress. It'd been so long...

"Could you... read it out loud?" she asked.

"Why would I-"

Toph huffed, retracting her hand from the wall and rolling over to face away from him. "Forget it," she said. "It was a stupid request."

She lay like that for a while, silence washing over her. After a few moments she heard the sound of a page turning. And then another, and another, in close succession. What was he doing? The Dark One cleared his throat.

"It was ten thousand years ago, when the spirits roamed the physical world, that a family of moles crawled out of a dirty hole in the ground..." Toph smiled and closed her eyes, listening to a story that reminded her of happier memories of her past.

* * *

"I understand the nature of your loathing towards the literary arts," he said, only two days later. They hadn't talked much since the night he'd read to her, besides some training related yelling of course.

"Oh, really?" Toph asked sarcastically. "What problem could _I_ possibly have with _books_?"

Toph was sitting outside on a rock, after an intense training session with the intermediate class. She wasn't due to start with her advanced students for half an hour or so, and she had just been catching her breath when The Dark One had interrupted her solitude.

"If one could only engage with the beast that lurks in the depths of the ocean, one would know that she and the beast are more alike than they ever knew."

"Um... what?"

The Dark One sighed. She felt his head tilt, as though he was rolling his eyes. "You liked the story I read to you the other night," he said.

Toph snorted. "Duh. It was about badger moles."

"Books hold stories of many things that you would find interesting," The Dark One countered. "But you refuse to engage with them because of your own limitations."

"My own limitations," Toph scrunched up her nose. "It's not like I'm refusing to read because I find it hard, you know. I'm blind."

"But you can be read to."

Toph scuffed the ground with a foot, forming a crack in the parched dirt. "And you're offering," she said. He shrugged. "No thanks."

The Dark One sighed again. "I will be reading with some of the younger students later in the evening, to introduce them to the wonderful world of-"

"I'm not a child that needs to be read a bedtime story!" Toph inhaled sharply, eyes wide. She hadn't meant to yell like that. "Just go," she said, hunching her shoulders. The Dark One walked away and Toph sighed.

Later that evening, after classes were done and students were getting ready for bed, Toph wandered into the building. She planned to grab something to eat, but as she passed the second bedroom on her way to the kitchen, she paused. The Dark One's voice floated from the room, gentle and soothing, as he read from another one of his books. There were five or six of her youngest students sitting on the floor and on adjacent beds as he flipped the pages and told the tale of a heroic earthbending girl who got lost in a swamp.

Toph wanted to walk right past, but the way he spoke drew her in. The Dark One certainly had a gift for storytelling.

Eventually, Toph leaned against the doorframe, listening as the earthbending girl cleverly tricked an evil spirit into freeing her friend from a tangle of vines. The story wrapped up with the girl and her friend leaving the swamp, and the promise of adventures to come. The Dark One closed his book.

The kids untangled their limbs and made their way towards their respective beds as The Dark One got up. Toph didn't move as he approached the door. "Got any more books about heroic earthbending girls?" she asked. The Dark One smirked.

"Perhaps," he said. "And perhaps I will one day own one about the heroic earthbending girl who helped end the Hundred Year War and invented a new form of bending in the process."

Toph snorted. "I damn well hope so," she said. She sighed. "Fine. You can read to me."

The Dark One's triumphant grin was almost too much for Toph's ego to endure, so she punched him in the arm. "But you'd better read me the most bad-ass stories you can get your hands on, because I'm not sitting through any frilly crap!"

He chuckled. "Of course, Sifu."


End file.
